


Mesmerized

by BonneyQ



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-04
Updated: 2014-02-04
Packaged: 2018-01-11 03:18:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1168024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BonneyQ/pseuds/BonneyQ





	1. The Girl Inside the Iceberg

Mermaids were not supposed to interfere with humans disasters, otherwise they would be extinct. To become a mermaid or merman, a human should die in high sea and drown and maybe, maybe said person would receive the ability to breathe underwater, a tail and a very long life by keeping the Kingdom away from prying eyes. No one actually remembered when it started or who/what could change a human into a mermaid, but the facts were that it was possible.  
  
Juvia Lockser turned into a mermaid ten years earlier, when she was seventeen and hadn’t aged a day ever since. Of course, she would, but it would take another fifty years to age another year, that’s why most people who survived meeting a mermaid would say how beautiful and young they were.  
  
Turning her attention once more to the yacht, Juvia watched as the humans ran one way to the other, yelling and trying to get ready for the imminent disaster.  
  
The owner of a small fishing boat tried to call for help when a team of whaling tried to harpoon a beluga whale. Juvia saw the people from the bigger boat turn against the smaller one; shooting and harpooning the small boat.  
  
She hated that part, the part when they realized they would fall into water and drown. She hated the screams, and to see their bodies underwater afterwards was awful, but it was the price of being a sentinel; so, during those moments, she’d rather stay as deep down in the water as she could and emerge when it was over and see if anyone was turning.  
  
That day, though, she felt like she was supposed to go up before those people could die. It was a risk and she shouldn’t do it, but her gut said the opposite.  
  
The bigger boat was far away now and couldn’t see her; she had to maneuver through the body of three dead men – none would turn into mermen –, but she saw a human female lying on top of a wood board, blood falling from a wound on her stomach. That woman would not turn into a mermaid as well, she would just die.  
  
Said woman stared at Juvia with wide eyes and the mermaid’s brown ones stared at her right back; she had been seen by other people during the seven years she was a sentinel, but all of them would ask if she could save them, but that woman looked different.  
  
“What are you?”  
  
“You should save your strength.” Juvia said.  
  
“Save them.” The woman stared at Juvia. “I don’t care who you are, but please, save my boys.”  
  
The mermaid looked over her shoulders, where the two boys were crying and holding a piece of wood, trying to maintain their heads above water. “It’s not allowed.”  
  
“They are boys! Children!” The woman said, grabbing her side and sighed in agony. “Just put them on a boat, please. Don’t let them freeze to death.”  
  
Any other mermaid wouldn’t even get close to the accident; but she did get close and now she was talking to a dying woman, who was asking her to save her children. Juvia wanted to save them, she was not heartless, but if they drowned, they might turn into mermen and become soldiers to protect the Kingdom.  
  
“They are important to me and don’t deserve to die out here.” The woman said, gasping for air. “Don’t turn your back on them.” She said with such strength and conviction, her eyes told that she was going to try her best to save her children.  
  
Juvia recalled that when she was human, her mother told her that there was no strength such as a mother’s trying to save her children, and the mermaid was seeing firsthand how it worked.  
  
Against her best judgment, the blunette swam over the two boys. One of them was almost blue because of the cold, but was still breathing. His hair was white and he whimpered when Juvia caught him.  
  
“Little boy, you have to hold on tight.” She whispered to him while using magic to warm him up; she was going to be weak later, but perhaps it was the price she paid. Juvia swam closer to the emergency bright yellow rubber boat and coached the boy, who seemed to be running on automatic, to climb on it. “You need to sleep.” Using more of her magic, she blew over his face and the boy fell asleep.  
  
Losing no time, she turned to grab the other boy and that one was a lot more trouble, he kicked and yelled for his mother and only stopped when Juvia warmed him up and made him calmer with her magic.  
  
Once the boys were on the boat the mermaid swam back to where the older woman was giving her final breaths. She was getting bluer and there was nothing much Juvia could do, she used most of her magic to warm the boys and calm them down.  
  
“They’re at the boat.” Juvia told the dark haired woman. “Juvia… Juvia will put them on a current, close to a boat.”  
  
“Thank you.”  
  
“Were you trying to protect the whales when you were attacked?”  
  
“Yes. I’ve always been against it and was using the radio to call the guard.” The woman coughed and Juvia sat by her side the best she could with her light blue tail. “Tell them I love both equally, please. Don’t let them see me go.”  
  
“Why… why are you asking me to do this?” Juvia asked, staring at the older woman. “You shouldn’t trust me.”  
  
The woman chuckled and then moaned in pain. “I think I am trusting your human side.”  
  
“Juvia hasn’t been human for years.” The mermaid said.  
  
“Then… why are you here?” The dark haired woman said and Juvia hesitated to answer; she looked over her shoulder to where the boat with the boys were and then back to the dying woman.  
  
“No one… should die alone.” Juvia whispered. “It’s awful.”  
  
“Thank you for that, then.” The woman said. “I am fine. You should take them to where you said you would.”  
  
“You’ll die alone anyway.” Juvia tried to argue.  
  
“As long as they are fine, I’m okay.” She said. “I will go in peace if I know they are safe.”  
  
“I am sorry.” The mermaid said, looking to the woman one more time before returning to the water and swimming over to the boys once more. Juvia looked over to her shoulder once more and saw that the older woman was not moving anymore.  
  
She hated that part.  
  
Pushing the small boat where the little boys rested, Juvia thought about what she was doing: saving two human boys that could turn into mermen – males were rare –, but she chose to listen to a dying woman’s wish and now she was committing a crime. If the King found out, she was sure to be imprisoned.  
  
“A-are you a mermaid?” A small voice caught her attention and Juvia looked up just to see a pair of dark eyes staring at her. The boy had dark hair like the woman whom she saw die a few moments before.  
  
“Yes.” Lying was useless and the boy seemed smart enough.  
  
“Good or bad?”  
  
Juvia thought about it for a moment. She wasn’t good, she didn’t just jump into the middle of bad just to save them, but she didn’t breathe out evil. “Neither.”  
  
He seemed to be confused, but didn’t say another word. “Ho-How about m-my mo-mom?”  
  
The mermaid sighed. “Sorry.” She said, actually feeling bad for the young boys. “Your mother helped the whales, and she should’ve been saved because of her good heart, but she didn’t drown. She did a good thing, though, trying to fight for them.”  
  
“Mom loved the whales.” A few tears were shed by the kid and for the first time in a long time, she recalled of how was to lose a parent.  
  
“And they will take care of her, little boy.” She told him, leading the boat to a current that would take them to the continent in a few hours. “You need to stay close to your brother, otherwise you’ll be sick.”  
  
“Mom taught us to not be too cold.” He said defiantly, but went to stay closer to the other white-haired boy. “We trained a lot.”  
  
“Juvia bets you did.” The mermaid chuckled.  
  
“Is this your name?” The boy asked. “Juvia?”  
  
She shouldn’t answer: it was against the rules to be seen and let alone talk to a human – it was one of the first things she learned when became a mermaid ten years before – because the survivors should never tell a soul about them: it was the key to anonymously. But the boy was scared as it was.  
  
“Yes. Juvia Lockser.” She told him and was glad that the current wasn’t too far off.  
  
“My name is Gray.” The boy told her, drying the tears. “Aren’t you cold?”  
  
“Why should Juvia be cold?”  
  
“The water is freezing, silly.” Gray told her and Juvia understood, then. He didn’t know that mermaids felt the water temperature differently and would adapt their own to it.  
  
“Don’t worry about that. Mermaids don’t feel cold in the water; it’s our friend, not enemy.” Feeling the beginning of the current pulling her tail as a sign that they were close enough of the current, the girl looked to the boy. “Listen, Gray. You can’t tell the other humans about Juvia. Mermaids do not exist.”  
  
“But you’re here.”  
  
“You imagined.” She told him gently. “You were scared and you imagined it, okay?”  
  
“But I didn’t.” The boy was stubborn and Juvia sighed. “You are here.”  
  
“And you can’t tell anyone.” Juvia said and touched his cheek. “Gray, you and your brother managed to find the emergency boat. Juvia is a product of your mind.”  
  
“But you are here!”  
  
“There’s only one thing you can’t forget: your mother said that she loved you and your brother very much.” The woman smiled and kissed his cheek. “You need to sleep now.”  
  
“I am not tired.” Gray grumbled and Juvia smiled.  
  
“You need to rest, little boy.” The mermaid whispered. “Life is not going to be easy from now on.” When Gray tried to say something else, Juvia blew on his face once more and in a moment, his eyelids started to close. She sang a tune to completely put him under the spell – mermaid’s voices were really hypnotic – and in a matter of seconds, the dark-haired boy was sleeping by his brother’s side.  
  
She pushed the boat until it reached the current, and, by far, she followed it until another fishing boat found them. Her promise was fulfilled, the boys were safe.  
  
Sadly, she wasn’t. Not if the King found out that she messed with the way things were supposed to be.  
  


#

Seventeen Years Later

“Gray.” His friend called and the dark haired man – who was inside the boat’s cabin - looking at some maps to see the route they would take back as soon as they found what they were sent to, looked up to see his orange-haired companion. “We’re here.”

“Already?” The twenty-four year old man asks and then grabs his coat so he can get out; the air of the Bering Sea cold and with the strong smell of salt, just like he always knew it was for his whole life. “Do you see anything out of the ordinary?” Gray asked his friend, who was handling the boat.

“I don’t think so.” Gray’s friend, Loki, said and the dark haired man started to look around, only to find just water and the usual pieces of ice, except by their left side. A few yards from the boat, there were a few white whales swimming. “Belugas.” Gray whispered; the mammals always gave him mixed feelings: he was taught to like them by his mother and she ended up being killed because she was trying to protect them. “They are circling something.”

“It’s just a piece of ice.” Loki said, shrugging. “Are you sure we are at the right coordinates?”

“Yes. She said it was here and she said that when I saw it I would know what it is.” Gray took the binoculars from the desk and stared at the whales with a frown, there was something weird of how they were behaving. The ice seemed big, about two meters and was ordinary enough, but the man watched longer than necessary, until the ice slowly turned.

There was… something inside the ice.

“Loki, get closer!” Gray yelled and the orange haired man nodded. “There’s something inside…” When the boat got close enough, the belugas stopped the circling and went away, his breathing stopped for a moment and his heart started to beat faster; inside, there was something, no… someone he knew from a long time, from the worst day of his life: the day he saw his mother and her crew die. But there was someone else there that day.

Inside the ice, there was Juvia Lockser. Her hair was still as blue as he recalled – he had painted her a lot when he went to grief counseling and his therapist asked him to draw something –; the blue scales that hid her breasts and that went down until reached her hips, where her tail, which had the same shade of azure as her locks, was. Her eyes were closed, her hands were by her side and even though she was frozen, she looked peaceful.

“Holy shit!” Loki was by his side and Gray hadn’t even seen him get closer. “Is that…? Is that a mermaid?”

“Yes.” Gray couldn’t take his eyes off of the block of ice. “She saved me when I was a boy.”

“Mermaids!? Really?” Loki stared at the ice with huge eyes. “You think that after what we’ve seen, what I am that nothing else can surprise us, right?” Gray nodded without actually paying attention to the other man. “She’s beautiful, though.”

“She always was.” Gray whispered, looking absolutely mesmerized by the woman trapped inside the ice. “We need to take her back with us.”

“Gray…” Loki turned to look at his friend, but he wouldn’t have any of it.

“Call for back up.” He said. “We are taking her back to FT; she’s coming with us.”


	2. Seeing You Again

When Juvia opened her eyes, there was a strong light floating in front of her and the blunette took a moment to think where she was. Did the spell fell through? It didn’t seem like fifty years, so the spell probably didn’t work.  
  
“Can you hear me?” Someone asked and Juvia had a hard time to focus her eyesight. It was weird, but she couldn’t put her finger on what it was.  
  
“It didn’t work?” Her voice was barely a whisper and once the words came out of her mouth, she froze. Mermaids communicate telepathically, only to use their actual voices when breathing air. That’s why she thought something was off: she was breathing air, not water.  
  
She sat, and even if her vision was still blurred, tried to escape: if humans got a hold of her, she was probably going to be locked somewhere in display like some freak. The other mermaids and merman told her that she shouldn’t be seen and if taken… No, she was too weak for that.  
  
“Let me go!” She started to struggle when she felt people grab her arms. The blunette started to wave her tail as best as she could while she panicked. How did that happen? How did she end up in human possession? She was being frozen and then humans had her?  
  
“We won’t hurt you, I swear! We will put you on water.” A masculine voice said, but it didn’t ease Juvia the least: they still had her and could do pretty much anything they wanted. “Calm down and we’ll put you there.”  
  
The mermaid could see better by then, she saw someone with bright orange hair, another with black hair, there was someone with blue hair too, but it was as far as she could gather.  
  
She felt someone grab her by behind, by the waist, while someone else – the orange haired person – grabbed her tail and they started to move. Juvia resisted all the way and as much as she could, but, just like she was promised, not too long after they picked her up, she felt them lower to water and she struggle until she was let go, diving and swimming the hell away from the humans.

#

“Dammit!” Gray kicked the water. They were using an old aquarium that was made for an orca whale a decade before. It was big and deep, but also had a place where the water reached his knees before the aquarium turned too deep.

The dark haired man could see the mermaid swimming all around, trying to find a way out – she, probably, was still a little off for being trapped inside a piece of ice.

“I told you it would be better if we thawed her by the end in the water!” Gray turned to his friends, frustrated. “She panicked! You said that we could talk to her better like that!”

“No shit, oh great intelligence!” Loki, the man who had helped him to rescue the ice Juvia was in and even tracked down the old aquarium, rolled his eyes. While Gray supervised the thawing, Loki took care of filling it with salt water as fast as possible. “Look, apparently I met a merman once and I forgot until the moment I saw her: sorry if I thought that she was going to actually listen to us. I think I was mesmerized, which is something: I don’t forget magical beings, but mermaids are fishy – no pun intended – they can make you forget who you are, forget that you even saw them.” The orange haired man sighed. “We were lucky she was confused and weak, otherwise, with a song, she could make us her bitch.”

“Even me?” The woman who was with them asked. Levy McGarden was a geneticist who was highly interested in studying the DNA of the mermaids. “Don’t mermaids’ songs only work with men?”

“No idea.” Loki shrugged. “I can’t remember much and most things we know about mermaids are old sailors’ tales.”

“We need to talk to her. The others will be here in a couple of hours.” Gray tried to see the mermaid, but apparently, she had settled on the opposite end of where the trio was. “We need to make her understand…”

“No, we don’t need to make her understand.” Loki said pointing to himself and then to Levy. “Out of all the mermaids that I assume exist, we found the one that saved your life when you were a boy. I’ve been around for too long to think this is a coincidence, Gray. You should talk to her.”

Gray sighed and weighted his options: the mermaid was scared and confused, of course and he couldn’t just let her think that they meant to do any harm to her. Someone needed to explain that they saved her from drifting inside the ice for too long.

“How do I do that?” He asked his companions. “She’s on the corner of the aquarium and hating us. I can’t just pull her up the water.”

“She has to come up some time.” Loki sounded uncertain. “Mermaids eat, right?”

“No idea.” Gray shrugged.

“Of course they eat, you fools!” Levy said with her hands on her hips. “But that’s not the point: she probably thinks that we kidnapped her.”

“That may make things a little tense for a while.” Loki raised an eyebrow and Gray nodded. “But hey… you guys kidnapped me and I am part of the gang now!”

“You did lock down the main base for twenty-four hours, though.” Gray crossed his arms over his chest.

“Water under the bridge and we all laugh about it now.” Loki laughed. “She’ll get over it.”

Levy rolled her eyes. “Look, give her ten minutes to calm down a bit and then we can think of a way to make her come out of the water to explain who we are.”

“I think I have a way to do that.” The dark haired man said and then proceeded to explain what he had in mind.

Just like the geneticist suggested, ten minutes later Gray went to the other side of the aquarium while his friends stayed put so not to overwhelm the blunette and then dove into the water and started to swim in the mermaid’s direction while she just stared at him with angry eyes – he guessed, it wasn’t easy to see while in the water –, but he had to make her communicate with them.

Careful not to get too close, Gray made signs with his hands telling her without words that they wanted to talk to her. The mermaid just looked away, clearly not interested. The man was running out of air and had to go to the surface for a minute to catch his breath, and, once he did, dove back in, but she just ignored him, sparing a glance or two.

‘She’s angry.’ He thought when he came out to breathe for the third time. ‘Time for dramatic measures.’

Diving in one more time, Gray waited for her to look at him and then pointed to himself, then down. Pointed at her, then up. He crossed his arms above his chest and stared at her, his message clear.

‘I’ll stay here until you come up.’

And he did.

#

The stupid human was going to kill himself!

Juvia was angry, because it seemed that the man who tried to make her come out of water appeared to have a death wish and people would certainly pin his demise on her; even though it wasn’t her fault!

He started to move in a way Juvia had seen many of times when she was still out in the ocean, waiting to see if a new mermaid our merman would be born. The human was drowning.

Rolling her eyes, she swam in his direction, catching him by the hand and bringing him to the surface. She took him to the opposite side of the aquarium; his friends started to run toward them while she pulled the unconscious man to the shallowest side. The blunette, after setting the man, stared at him with curiosity and caution. It was as if she knew him, but couldn’t place from where.

Juvia touched his face lightly and counted silently inside her head how long he had been without oxygen – humans were fragile that way – and predicted that his friends couldn’t arrive in time to help him. She shouldn’t help – he kidnapped her, somehow – but before she knew what she was doing, her body moved on her own.

Leaning in, the mermaid gathered a little magic on her mouth, to pass it to him so it could reach his lungs – it was the fastest way, and helped that the person she was healing was a good-looking man. Their lips met tenderly – she didn’t know why, since it was supposed to be something impersonal –, her heart started to beat faster.

One of her hands rested on his chest and the woman closed her eyes with the contact of lips and skin to skin. She was so lost in the moment that she almost forgot to give him the magic, but once she did, his eyes opened and he started to cough all the water that was inside his lungs, out.

Juvia was leaning on him, still. Eyes curiously roaming on his face, while her hand still touched his chest. She didn’t seemed at all bothered by the proximity, even when he opened his eyes – still a little unfocused – and, after taking a few deep breaths, gave her a smile.

“I knew you would help me.” The dark haired man said. “Nice to see you again, Juvia.”

“How do you know Juvia’s name?” The woman asked with a whisper and stared at him with confusion.

“You saved my life when I was a little boy.” When he saw that she was still confused with his words, he completed. “My name is Gray.”

“You are lying.” The mermaid shoved him away from her. “Juvia just saw Gray last week, he is a child.”

“Last week?” The man frowned. “Juvia, it has been seventeen years since that day. But it is me, that’s why I know your name. You told me, remember? You said that the belugas would take care of my mother? You pulled me and my brother on a boat until we reached a current that could take us to safety.”

Juvia stared at him and recalled the little boy she helped… the dark hair, dark eyes, the shape of his eyes, eyebrows… He was older, seventeen years older, but that was Gray. In her gut, she knew it was him.

“Is that really you?” She leaned in and touched his face in wonder. “Gray?”

“That’s me.” He seemed a little uncomfortable with the touch, but let her inspect him; the mermaid started to touch all of his face and even pinched his cheeks.

“But… you are just a kid.” Juvia mumbled.

“Not anymore.” He rolled his eyes in annoyance: he was no child, thank you very much.

“Seventeen years you said?” The blunette asked and Gray nodded. “Juvia should have felt it, instead she didn’t.”

“What do you mean?” Gray asked, curious, but Juvia changed the subject.

“Where are we?” She looked around them: it seemed like a very big and old warehouse.

“In one of the Corporation’s facilities.”

Her gaze returned to him with a frown. “Facilities?”

“I work with the imaginable; we study supernatural beings and gather information about them. You are our first mermaid.” Gray sat and the water reached his waist.

“We are hard to catch.” Juvia said with a hint of smile and the man thought that they were making progress, but when they heard the others coming, the mermaid was about to return to the water, he grabbed her hand.

“Don’t.” Gray tried to prevent the mermaid to leave. “They won’t hurt you.” She hesitated and was confused of why she trusted the human boy. “All we want to do is talk to you: mermaids are almost a myth and we want to learn more.”

“What for?” She asked suspiciously.

“To try to understand, that’s all.” He assured her. “That’s what we do.” They heard the other two member of his team getting closer. “Look, you’ll stay in the water, and if we upset you, you can just dive back in, alright? Just hear us out. We didn’t kidnapped you, we found you inside a block of ice. Let us explain, please.”

Juvia nodded and retracted a bit so she could dive back inside in a second, but waited for the other two to arrive.

“Are you alright, Gray?” The woman asked without entering the aquarium and Gray nodded in response.

“Oh, come on: you saw her frenching him, I bet he feels wonderful right now.” The man with orange hair said with a wide smile and standing by the woman’s side.

“This is Loki, but he really is the incarnation of Leo – you know, that Leo, from the Zodiac?” Gray introduced, while his face flushed in embarrassment: Juvia had done that to prevent him from drowning, but either way: being teased by it sucked.

“Really?” Juvia asked in wonder while staring at the newly arrived man.

“Yes, miss.” Loki curtsied. “I’ve been around for a couple thousands of years and I have to say… mermaids? Not something I see around often, apparently. I got mesmerized by one of your kind. I thought you were extinct or a myth.”

“We still here, Juvia guess…” The mermaid shrugged seeming not to care much about the situation, but still with doubt in her eyes.

“Lucky us.” Loke leered lewdly at her. “Loving the tail, by the way… Very few people can pull it off.”

“Shut it.” Gray rolled his eyes. “Sorry, he’s a bit of a flirt. If it moves, is game for him. You wouldn’t believe what he did with a centaur once.”

“Hey!” Loki feigned outrage. “Juara happened to widen my horizons to places I’ve never thought…”

“Oh, shut up: you’re scaring the mermaid.” Levy rolled her eyes.

“Please… If you knew the things merman do…” Leo scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. “Now that my memory was triggered, I think that’s probably why he mesmerized me, actually. No one should do that with a manatee…”

“Don’t even get me started.” The blunette giggled, playing along, feeling more at ease, knowing that there was someone else, who was magical, with them.

“That is Levy McGarden.” Gray pointed to a petite blunette with big brown eyes. The woman waved at her with a kind smile. “She was human until she bonded with a Dragoman. When was it, Levy?”

“Only a year ago. It’s fairly new.” The petite blunette shrugged.

“What’s a Dragoman?” Juvia frowned; she never heard that word before.

“A man who can turn himself into a Dragon.” Gray clarified. “Gajeel – you’ll meet him eventually – is about five hundred years old.” The mermaid widened her eyes. “Every Dragoman has a counterpart, a mate who can ‘tame’ them, but, since they have very long lives, it can take hundreds of years until their mates are born. Levy here is a 21st century girl, while her boyfriend is from the 1500’s. It’s kind of funny to see her stopping him from destroying a restaurant just because they are out of tables, though.”

“That’s impressive.” Juvia stared at the woman with new found respect: she never met a Dragoman, but they seemed to be wild.

“We have another Dragoman, Natsu, and a Dragowoman, Wendy. He is three hundred years old and she’s still young, about ninety eight.” Levy told her. “And, as far as we know, there are four more, all unbonded, which makes them dangerous, but so far, behaving.”

“That’s… impressive.” Juvia said. “Other magical beings in the world? And you know about them?”

“If you choose to stay – we don’t hold anyone who doesn’t want to be here – we can show you much more.” Gray told her.

“Who’s ‘we’?” Juvia asked.

“We are called Fairy Tail and we would love to learn from you.”


	3. Talking To The Moon

Fairy Tail turned out to be nice and Juvia decided that she could’ve be captured by worst people than the ones who just wanted to test her abilities, draw some blood and to some boring tests. She had been with them for a week and they even x-rayed her tail, just to find out that she still had her legs inside it! That was new, even to her.  
  
Levy got really excited with her discovery and since that day, she was trying to figure it out how that happened, but so far, she was not lucky and Juvia did have a trick up on her sleeve but chose not to show to them just yet, if ever.  
  
But what really caught her attention was the technology from that time; they had the most unusual things!  
  
When they moved the mermaid to a room annexed to the warehouse so Levy could exam her, Juvia became fascinated with the flat screen TV fixed on the wall.  
  
“Is that a television?” She asked with wonder as Gray and Loke put her on the stall so she could be examined. “On the wall? And that thin?”  
  
“Yes.” The dark haired man frowned with her statement and then realized that she’d been inside ice for seventeen years and even more as a mermaid, so a flat TV would surprise her. “Oh, right. There are so many new things in the world.”  
  
“Is that so?” Her eyes sparkled while she lied down and Levy fawned over her. “What can you show Juvia?”  
  
Gray thought for a moment and decided to grab his cellphone and showed it to her, it wasn’t the most advanced one out there on the market, but it was updated enough. A simple tab, not too big and touchscreen, he wondered what she would think of that.  
  
“This is mostly how cellphones are these days.” He showed it to her and she gasped with the sight.  
  
“But… it’s so tiny!” The mermaid said and Gray chuckled, giving it to her. While she inspection the device in hand, the man pulled a chair so he could sit by the stall and distract her from Levy’s examination – on the end of her tail that time – and entertain her; it was funny to see her discovering new things. “And where are the buttons?”  
  
“You don’t need buttons anymore. Most of the cellphones now have touchscreen now.” Gray informed her. “Here, let me show you.” The man unlocked his phone and it lit up, so he returned it to her. “Touch it.”  
  
She frowned but did as she was told and let out a gasp when an app opened. “What is happening?”  
  
Gray leaned in to see what she did and grinned. “You opened my week planner.”  
  
“Juvia touches and it just… does it?” The mermaid asked.  
  
“Pretty much. You’ll get the hang of it.” He chuckled. “There are games for you to play too if you want.” She nodded and he took the phone from her once again and chose one of the silly games he downloaded a couple of months before. “Here you go. This one is called Cut The Rope.” The man watched her face and her eyes were glued on the screen and listening carefully. He started the game and when the lizard appeared, Juvia let out a giggle and Gray smiled. “Now, see this rope? You have to cut it like this…” The man made the move. “…and the candy falls into its mouth.”  
  
The mermaid let out a delighted laugh while the small lizard made sounds as he chewed his candy. “This is marvelous!”  
  
“It’s just a silly game.” Gray informed her.  
  
“Do it again!” Juvia shoved the cellphone in his direction and he taught her a little more about how it worked and soon enough she was playing with it by herself and laughing while doing it. Levy had to ask for the mermaid to stop moving her tail in excitement. “Juvia is in level 6 now!”  
  
“Nice.” He chose not to tell her that arrive in level six was easy; he gave her a break, since she just learned how to touch the screen without giggling madly.  
  
“What else is there?” She looked his way and Gray thought for a moment.  
  
“Give it here.” The mermaid did it as she was told and he opened his music player, choosing a song he thought she would like.  
  
When the tune started, Gray returned the phone back to her, who was mesmerized by the music. After a few seconds the lyrics began.

  
  
_This time, this place_   
  
_Misused, mistakes_   
  
_Too long, too late_   
  
_Who was I to make you wait?_   
  
_Just one chance, just one breath_   
  
_Just in case there's just one left_   
  
_'Cause you know, you know, you know_   
  


“Where the tape goes?” Juvia asked still with her focus on the song even if she questioned the man by her side.

“There are no tapes anymore. It’s all mp3 now. I’ll explain it later; I don’t even know how it works myself.” Gray shrugged and as the song progressed she smiled.

  
  
_That I love you_   
  
_I have loved you all along_   
  
_And I miss you_   
  
_Been far away for far too long_   
  
_I keep dreaming you'll be with me_   
  
_And you'll never go_   
  
_Stop breathing if I don't see you anymore_   
  


“Little bit close to home with that song, isn’t it, Gray?” Levy talked to them for the first time since she started examining the mermaid and the man gave her a look of disapproval. It wasn’t as if Gray chose the song because of the lyrics, or that it had to do with anything he went through during the seventeen years since he met Juvia.

He became quite obsessed with mermaids – with reason, seeing that he was saved by one – and his life revolved around that for quite some time: Gray even majored in oceanographic so he could understand better the sea and by consequence try to find some evidence of them in any way he could and he went through a lot as a child because he told them a mermaid saved him and Lyon – the white haired boy told them that their mother put them on the boat; their problems began with that statement and Lyon refused to back up Gray’s story about a mermaid saving them. The boys grew apart after that.

Oh, how much he wished to just call Lyon and show Juvia to him, to show how real she was; show him that Gray was not crazy to believe that she really existed? But he couldn’t tell foreigners about Fairy Tail’s businesses.

Somewhere along the way, Gray built his whole life around the woman who was currently amazed by a simple common thing such as a cellphone. He tried his whole life to find her and get answers, just to be afraid of asking the questions.

Did he really wish to relive that night? Would he be satisfied with whatever she could tell him? Why he lived while his mother died? Why help him and not her?

The man was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he barely heard the mermaid’s questions about the phone, but snapped out of it and answered them as honestly as he could. He would have time to ask about that night other time, a time where she wasn’t so happy. And to tell the truth, he was quite in a good mood himself.

#

Juvia loved ‘the future’ (as she called) and she wondered what else they would come up with! People had computers that were so small, they fit in a purse! And there were things bigger than cellphones, but they were called tablets and she could play Cut the Rope much better in them. And there was the Internet, in which apparently, she could surf – when she asked Gray about how they would surf with a computer if it couldn’t get wet (the man told her that those things were not water proof, so she needed to be out of the aquarium to use it), he laughed.

But she understood now: it was a network of computers connected. And no one actually surfed on it: it was an expression.

The mermaid liked the internet, especially a website called YouTube, where there were the most adorable videos of kittens she ever saw. One afternoon, she spent the whole time searching for some cute ones, then, when she thought it was over, she found cute puppies and no one say no to puppies.

She heard about the thing that sent archives through air from device to device… Greentooth, maybe? She knew it had a color name and teeth were involved (she had no idea where it came along, but she was no expert in technology).

The thing she loved the most, though was the music: so many songs, so many styles, too many feelings poured over lyrics and melodies. As a mermaid, she was naturally in synchrony with music and all sorts of beautiful sounds.

Gray gave her an iPod with all types of songs and the mermaid would listen to them during the night while she was alone, memorizing the beautiful arrangements, the way a voice sounded with each note… it was truly fascinating.

Juvia found that she liked all types of songs (they all had their own merits), but she decided she had two favorites out of them all: a band called Evanescence being one of them. The blunette got hypnotized by the angelic voice in contrast with the (sometimes) hard beat and it gave her so many conflicting feelings. It was very nice. Very, very nice.

But the one she loved the most, was Bruno. Oh, Bruno and his beautiful voice, melody and lyrics, she could stay a whole day just listening to him, singing.

“Bruno is a genius.” Juvia said while one of her favorite songs played on her iPod; her tail touching the water but otherwise the mermaid was sitting on the Aquarium’s edge after a day of more boring tests. Gray brought her some food (she had been craving cheeseburgers and a couple of days) and sat by her side with the package from the nearest restaurant in hands.

The man frowned. “Who is Bruno?”

“Mars.” Juvia looked to him. “Do you know him? Here, let Juvia show it to you.” She gave him one of her earphones (Gray got her pink ones, as requested) and a song he knew pretty well started to play.

“Talking to the Moon.” The man nodded. “Nice song.”

“Yes.” The blunette smiled sadly and looked up to the warehouse’s ceiling. “Juvia remembers that she liked to go to the surface during the nights with a clear sky and look up.” Gray paid attention on her. “She couldn’t see it during storm nights and all that, but when the sky was clear… Have you ever seen a clear sky during the night and in the middle of the sea?” She returned his gazed to his and the man nodded, since he spent his share of nights in boats. “Then you know, don’t you?” She asked gently and Gray frowned. “To feel so tiny under so many stars and the Moon, but at the same time feeling so big because you know you are part of it…”

Gray took a breath and nodded. Yes, he felt that way and no one ever put it in such a simple and yet correct way.

“Maybe that’s why Bruno is talking to the Moon.” Juvia shrugged. “Because he knows that everything is connected; even something miles and miles away.” The man didn’t know how to answer her so he chose to stay in silence and both of them stared at the water – the end of her tail under water.

When the music was almost done, she accompanied the last few verses with a sweet voice which Gray was sure carried no mermaid magic, but was beautiful, clean and mesmerizing either way.

  
_Do you ever hear me calling?_

_Cause every night_

_I'm talking to the moon_

_Still trying to get to you_

__

In hopes you're on  
  
 _The other side_  
  
 _Talking to me too_  
  
 _Or am I a fool_  
  
 _Who sits alone_  
  
 _Talking to the moon_

__

I know you're somewhere out there  
  
 _Somewhere far away_

She sighed as she pulled the earphones away from them and Gray saw a flick of sadness in her expression and even after a week with them, she didn’t complain about anything, she even enjoyed it all the things she discovered, and she never looked sad until that moment.  
  
Juvia missed her life a little bit, Gray understood. She liked the unknown, but she missed what she had before.  
  
Making a decision to try to cheer her up a little bit, Gray got up from his spot and picked her up bridal style. The woman gasped in surprise by the sudden movement and asked what he was doing. He asked her to wait and took her towards the warehouse’s door (it was a little bit difficult to walk because of her tail – that was why usually Loke helped him, but he made do).  
  
Gray put her sitting on the floor by one side of the door while he opened it before picking her up once more, taking her outside.  
  
The warehouse Fairy Tail owned was located close to the beach (which they could see by their left) and was in high grounds, so they could see the city of Magnolia not too far away of where they stood. Juvia had her arms around his neck and looked up the same time he did and smiled. A big, true smile that made Gray produce one of his own.  
  
“Thank you.” Juvia told him with sincerity after a couple of minutes, her eyes focused on the sky.  
  
“You’re welcome." 


End file.
